


Sandstorm- 50 Sentences

by greenkangaroo



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Sentence Prompt, Short work, sand siblings - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-11 16:50:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7900438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenkangaroo/pseuds/greenkangaroo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fifty prompt challenge revolving around Kankuro, his siblings, and their lives/loves. Originally posted on ff.net.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sandstorm- 50 Sentences

**Author's Note:**

> While this is a prompt challenge, the actual prompts have been removed; they have each been heavily edited and so the original list would be pretty useless.

#01

Temari was always after Kankuro to clean up his workshop. It's a hazard, she'd say, and she wasn't exactly wrong. However bad it was, she never carried through on her threat to use her fan's summons and clean the place out herself, preferably through the nearest wall. They all had their security blankets. So Kankuro's was poison and paint fumes. Whatever. At least it wasn't a gourd full of bloodsoaked sand. 

#02

It had surprised Kankuro the first time when he had to tilt his head up to kiss Chouji. He could count on one hand the amount of times he'd been with anyone taller than him and still have plenty of fingers left over. They grew them bigger in Konoha, it seemed. Maybe, just maybe, it sent tingles down his spine. 

#03 

There were few things that Shikamaru Nara and his brother-in-law agreed upon, save one, and this was that Akimichi tummies were quite possibly the best pillows that had ever existed.

#04 

Gaara claimed that the Desert Coffin caused no pain. Kankuro could attest to the truthfulness of that, to a point. It was too sudden, too claustrophobic, for the victim to even realize what was happening. Darkness, asphyxia, and then- well. Then the hand closed, didn't it? He supposed it was decent of Gaara, to not close his fist on his brother. 

#05 

Temari asked Chouji to help her better her cooking skills with her spine ramrod straight, like she was accepting a mission that would inevitably end in failure. There were casualties, of course, but Chouji assured her that burned rice was not apocalyptic, just hard on the pots. 

#06

The wet season in Konoha lasted longer and with far more strength than in Suna, but for what little rain fell, the desert made good use of it. 

#07

It had taken him four months, fifteen batches, innumerable taste tests and many near misses but Chouji had perfected his fudge recipe, right down to every specification. This, and the look on Temari's face (after the customary punch to the upper arm), merely confirmed for Shikamaru Nara that Chouji was the best friend a guy could have.

#08 

Happiness was seeing just how that ridiculous hat, with its kanji for 'wind shadow', fit so perfectly on his baby brother's head.

#09 

Temari and Kankuro always knew when Lee was going to arrive at the Tower, even if Gaara hadn't informed them. The amount of incredulous muttering seemed to increase with every step he took into the village, consisting mainly of 'leg warmers' and 'jumpsuit'. 

#10 

There was really no need to put ears on a puppet, except, perhaps, as a way to hide weapons; but every good puppeteer knew that sometimes you needed someone to talk to.

#11

He was in the family registry as Sabaku-no- Arashi, and in the puppeteer's notary as Kankuro of Red Sands; but he liked Chouji's pet names for him the best, even if they were mostly food-based.

#12 

Normally it was Kankuro who showed up to their meetings late, hood a little askew even if his paint was perfect. Temari made fun of him then. Kankuro didn't dare make fun when she was the one late, smoothing her skirt and checking her hair. the day Gaara was late for the first time neither his brother nor his sister could figure out a way to tell him that Lee had given him a hicky just a little too high.

#13 

Death had been playing a waiting game for the past twenty years, tossing the dice and always passing just over Kankuro's head. As he lay in a sand dune watching Sasori walk away Kankuro was positive that this time he'd rolled snake eyes. 

#14 

Baki knew he didn't like all these leaf ninja about. He knew he didn't like the security risk. He especially knew he didn't like having to explain to the council why the Wind Mistress/Puppet Master/Kazekage was late _again._ It was time to up his hazard pay and take a long vacation.

#15

The touch of a puppet, Gaara had learned, was very different from the touch of his brother but the trick always surprised their enemies, and he had to wonder why he was the only one who noticed the difference.

#16 

Kankuro was never so aware of his weakness as when he was sitting in a tiny shadow or behind a genjutsu, grimly hoping that the poisons took effect before anyone thought to look for the man behind the machine.

#17 

Puppeteer face paint was not merely water resistant, it was impossible to remove without the proper hand seals. Ino was jealous as hell. 

#18 

There was nothing quite like running over the desert sands at midnight after a successful mission, especially when you knew that there was a worried older sister making tea and a powerhouse of a younger brother sitting behind a desk, listening to your sandals on sandgrains from kilometers away.

#19

When Temari used her fan to ride the currents over Suna, she would pretend she was one of the great golden eagles that had once soared there. When she came back down to earth and shook out her hair, she imagined feathers shedding. 

#20

There was a time in their lives when both Temari and Kankuro secretly wished they could light a funeral candle for their baby brother.

#21 

A normal ninja, or at least any ninja trained in desert survival, would have taken cover from the sandstorm. Chouji was not a normal ninja (though he was trained in desert survival) and when he stood over fifty feet tall and leaned into the oncoming samiel Kankuro couldn't help but whoop, damn the mouthful of sand he got for it. 

#22 

"See?" Chouji says as he steps away from the man he just strangled bare handed. On the dead man's windpipe his thumbs form a body, his outstretched fingers wings. "Butterflies." 

#23

Being a puppeteer necessitated being good with one's hands, but Chouji was fairly certain that when Chikamatsu Monzeimon created the chakra string jutsu he hadn't quite envisioned what Kankuro would do with it.

#24

It wasn't that Lee couldn't cook so much as whatever he made was edible to only one person, and that was him. Chouji tried explaining this politely, but when politeness gave him the runaround he decided to go with the tried and true Akimichi Method. Lee protested being locked out of the kitchen, but all it took was one bite of curry for the Kazekage to be firmly on Chouji's side. 

#25 

Kankuro learned how to mimic Gaara's crushing jutsus. It wasn't perfect- sand clinging to chakra strings was not the same as a solid wall of the stuff- but it didn't have to be. When Kankuro dragged his comatose sibling home along the rampaging path that Ichibi had created, he didn't worry about assassins too much. Father would blame it on Ichibi either way. 

#26

Maybe an early death would have been preferable to looking in the mirror as he aged and seeing Rasa look back. 

#27

Love was Akimichi Chouji sitting underneath a wide tarp, handing his lover various cleaning implements as Kankuro whistled cheerily, scrubbing out Kuroari in an old shirt he knew he would have to throw away.

#28 

There was nothing more difficult to care for, nor hilarious. than a miserable Akimichi with a summer cold. Well, that was a lie. It was even funnier when it was an Akimichi, a Nara, and a Lee with summer colds, demanding to know how anyone in Sunakagure remained healthy and drinking more tea than was seemly or even physically possible. 

#29 

Temari could sometimes hear from her balcony the softest sound of metal strings, and a low, sweet voice singing a love song. She never told Kankuro she could hear him because if she closed her eyes it was Shikamaru serenading and she preferred that as a rule.

#30 

In Suna, where there were no trees, the stars marched like soldiers all across the sky, forming a wave in the heat of battle; it was the next best thing to cloud watching Shikamaru could find, and much cooler, to boot.

#31 

Home for one was sweeping forests, the other swirling golden sands, but no matter where they were, Chouji and Kankuro felt the most at home together.

#32

In the early years of the warring states, Akimichi who used the multi-size jutsu tended to wear heavier armor with spikes and protrusions, the better to mow down opponents with the Human Boulder technique. Ninjutsu had evolved and so had chakra-charged hair, but the tiny kunai Ino helped Chouji braid in before missions was still damn useful. 

#33

Any time Chouji lost weight during battle Shikamaru felt a cold stab in his gut, and no matter how much he said to himself that that was then and this was now, he panicked at the sound of a butterfly's wings.

#34

Lightning, Gaara explained in his best Leader-of-a-ninja-village-monotone, was very different in Konoha than it was in Suna and therefore he had every reason to squeak in terror and run to his brother's room, hijacking Akimichi Chouji's soft tummy and hiding under the covers. 

#35 

Kankuro could still remember the argument he and his first boyfriend had, the night before the jounin attempted to carry out an assassination attempt on Gaara, about family duty verses prison and brothers verses demons. It hadn't surprised him at all when nothing could be found of the body. The next morning Gaara presented him with what was left of a puppet arm and said, "He was trash."

#36

In comparison to Suna, Konoha's marketplace was bigger, more prosperous, and overwhelming. Chouji, who formed his own landmark in the crowd, pretended he didn't feel the Kazekage clinging to the back of his shirt, ruing the day he'd stopped being so menacing. 

#37

When Tenten told Kankuro she was having trouble with layering in her weapons-storage scrolls, they sat together under a public pagoda for hours, looking over notes and swapping ideas, discussing this loading mechanism over that poisoned blade. Shikamaru looked on aghast, wondering what exactly he had just done and how quickly he could blame it on someone else. 

#38

Ino sighed heavily when her boys decided to fall in love with desert ninja, complained at length to anyone who would listen, and began researching how to cultivate decorative cacti. 

#39

Even though he thought that it was absolutely insane, Kankuro couldn't help but grin back when Lee smiled. Sure, they were outnumbered, outmatched, and he was running low on chakra, but what the fuck, they had the power of Youth, didn't they? That had to count for something. 

#40

Kankuro could almost remember a time when he was considered innocent, before he became Suna's foremost authority on poisons, and his name was spoken in hushed whispers. All in all, he prefers the here and now, because in his experience innocent people are dead people.

#41

When a play reached completion, Kankuro always took a moment to breathe; and it always, always felt like he was flying.

#42 

Lee and Kankuro both tried the cloud-watching thing, but they couldn't make it work. Kankuro only saw vague threats in the sky, while Lee kept remembering new things he wanted to try in his training regimens. Shikamaru told them they weren't cut out for it and they didn't bother arguing. Chouji just laughed and opened a new bag of chips. 

#43

Shikamaru pretended he didn't go out to the wall to keep watch whenever Temari was due home. None of the guards ever brought it up; they saw what happened to the last guy, and the sun in the desert cast long shadows, indeed.

#44 

If there was a heaven, Kankuro knew that Chiyo was there, as reward for all the times she had smacked him deservedly over the head and bemoaned him ever becoming a true puppeteer while picking misfired senbon out of courtyard walls.

#45 

Lee had never wanted to know how many kunai it took to stop a charging Akimichi. Arguably, he still didn't have an answer. The medics had taken twelve out so far, and Chouji had shown no signs of flagging except for a meek request for dinner. 

#46

Sunlight bleached Temari's hair until it was white gold, turned Kankuro into a patchwork of light and dark, didn't dare touch Gaara. It gave Shikamaru a good crisping. It turned Chouji into something made of bronze. 

#47

There was always something different in the moon, depending on the country you were travelling in, but no matter where he was, Kankuro knew that he would always and only see a tanuki.

#48 

All three Sand Siblings feigned nonchalance when they saw the ocean for the first time at the Wind Damiyo's summer palace. All the same, midnight found them standing on the beach, staring at the water as it ebbed and flowed. Temari dipped her feet in first, and Kankuro swiftly followed. Gaara waited until they were up to their ankles before abandoning his gourd on the shore.

#49

It had taken Temari four hours to cut the auburn locks off of Kankuro's arms. The first two had been spent laughing at the very idea of her little brother accidentally screwing with the chakra in his boyfriend's highly volatile hair.

#50 

The sabaku taiso echoed over the dunes with a mighty crash, and in its wake Kankuro could only ride the shockwave and hope that Gaara noticed him, plucking him to safety on that damn sand cloud he loved so much.

**Author's Note:**

> 'samiel' is, in fact, another word for a sandstorm.
> 
> Prompt number 22 was inspired by a fic on ff.net whose title I cannot recall. The author's name has recently been provided for me- Imbrium Iridium, who hasn't written for Naruto in a long time.


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